• How Can Scientists Predict a COVID-19 Outbreak? There Is an App for That

    A mobile app that uses crowd-sourced data on COVID-19 symptoms can accurately identify where local coronavirus outbreaks will appear, according to scientists who developed the app. “COVID Control” using self-reported virus symptom information could predict next outbreak.

  • The Liberals Who Can’t Quit Lockdown

    Among the relieved Americans going back out to restaurants and planning their summer-wedding travel is a different group, Emma Green writes: liberals who aren’t quite ready to let go of pandemic restrictions. “For this subset, diligence against COVID-19 remains an expression of political identity—even when that means overestimating the disease’s risks or setting limits far more strict than what public-health guidelines permit.” For many progressives, extreme vigilance was in part about opposing Donald Trump - but the spring of 2021 is different from the spring of 2020, as scientists know a lot more about how COVID-19 spreads—and how it doesn’t. “Public-health advice is shifting. But some progressives have not updated their behavior based on the new information,” Green says.

  • New AI tool Tracks Evolution of COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories on Social Media

    A new machine-learning program accurately identifies COVID-19-related conspiracy theories on social media and models how they evolved over time—a tool that could someday help public health officials combat misinformation online.

  • Worldwide Vaccine Hesitancy Poses Risk to Ending Pandemic

    The results of a new poll show that vaccine hesitancy worldwide poses a risk to ending the COVID-19 pandemic for good. In 79 out of 117 countries surveyed, the number of people who said they were willing to be vaccinated was below 70%, the minimum percentage of the population that scientists say needs to have immunity to stop the virus from circulating. 

  • Superspreaders of Malign and Subversive Information on COVID-19

    The global spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created a fertile ground for attempts to influence and destabilize different populations and countries. Both Russia and China have employed information manipulation during the COVID-19 pandemic to tarnish the reputation of the United States by emphasizing challenges with its pandemic response and characterizing U.S. systems as inadequate, and both countries falsely accused the United States of developing and intentionally spreading the virus.

  • Cybersecurity Curriculum, Pilot Focused on Veterans and First Responders

    The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is part of a coalition of universities and industry partners that are developing a curriculum to increase cybersecurity talent focused on health care with $6.3 million in funding from the National Security Agency. The curriculum focuses on health care cybersecurity.

  • Beijing Urges WHO Leader Not to Pursue 'Lab Leak' Theory

    China is lashing out at the chief of the World Health Organization for suggesting that more study is needed into the possibility that the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic initially escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

  • Antibiotic Development, Stewardship Advocates See Window of Opportunity

    The pandemic isn’t over yet, but with more and more Americans getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel becoming a little brighter every day—at least in the United States—many clinicians, scientists, and public health advocates are calling for renewed attention to an infectious disease threat that was in the spotlight before the pandemic arrived.

  • Stanford University Disavows Study Claiming Masks ‘Worthless’ Against COVID-19

    The Stanford University School of Medicine issued a statement disavowing a study being circulated online that claims face masks are “worthless” against COVID-19. The author, Baruch Vainshelboim, a sports doctor with no experience in infectious disease, listed his credentials as working for the “Cardiology Division, Veteran Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System/Stanford University,” but representatives from both the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford’s medical school told AP Vainshelboim does not work at either institution. A Johns Hopkins University infectious disease expert said that the study “does not provide any strong evidence for the statement,” that masks are inefficient at preventing the spread of the infection.

  • New Tool Could Guide Floodwater Management and Combat Ongoing Drought

    Using a new computer framework, scientists are able to project future floodwaters under a changing climate. The approach could help California water managers plan for and redirect floodwaters toward groundwater aquifers, alleviating both flood and drought risks.

  • Lessons from Past Emergencies Could Improve the Pandemic Response

    The lack of accountability, poor communication and insufficient planning plaguing the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic — especially in its early months — have roots in how the nation responded to 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the H1N1 swine flu, a new study finds.

  • New Tech Makes Detecting Airborne Ebola Virus Possible

    Natural outbreaks of the Ebola virus, while severe, are typically isolated and usually affect no more than a few hundred people at a time. However, from 2014-2016, infections from this deadly virus caused more than 11,000 deaths in West Africa. During this time, several cases of Ebola virus disease were also diagnosed in other countries, including the United States, due to infected travelers from West Africa that had unknowingly harbored and incubated the virus while en-route to their respective destinations.

  • Road Salts Are Threatening World's Freshwater Supplies

    When winter storms threaten to make travel dangerous, people often turn to salt, spreading it liberally over highways, streets and sidewalks to melt snow and ice. A new study warns that introducing salt into the environment — whether it’s for de-icing roads, fertilizing farmland or other purposes — releases toxic chemical cocktails that create a serious and growing global threat to our freshwater supply and to human health.

  • Interstate Water Wars Are Heating Up Along with the Climate

    Interstate water disputes are as American as apple pie. States often think a neighboring state is using more than its fair share from a river, lake or aquifer that crosses borders. Climate stresses are raising the stakes.

  • “Deprogramming” QAnon Followers Ignores Free Will and Why They Adopted the Beliefs in the First Place

    Recent calls to deprogram QAnon conspiracy followers are steeped in discredited notions about brainwashing. As popularly imagined, brainwashing is a coercive procedure that programs new long-term personality changes. Deprogramming, also coercive, is thought to undo brainwashing. Such deprogramming conversations do little to help us understand why people adopt QAnon beliefs. A deprogramming discourse fails to understand religious recruitment and conversion and excuses those spreading QAnon beliefs from accountability.